“Not a chance,” I replied. “Let Bernie go now, or we’ll shoot.”
Jerry said something quietly to the man who nodded with a smile.
“No!” Bernie shouted.
The overweight man aiming at the back of Bernie’s head pulled the trigger and a puff of red mist appeared in front of Bernie’s face, before he quickly sank to the ground. I stood in shock as Jerry and the assassin used our hesitation to run towards the fields.
Jack and I started firing. One of us hit the shooter in the thigh, and he dropped to his knees. I ran out of ammunition just as Jerry made it over the fence and started running through the field in the direction of his farm. Jack quickly reloaded and shot the fallen man before he could turn his pistol on us. The force of the impact ripped the jawbone from the right side of his face. He slumped lifelessly against a fence post.
I ran up to Bernie shouting his name. When I reached him, I pulled up short; realising there was nothing we could do. The front section of Bernie’s skull was missing and some of his brain was visible around the exit wound.
“Fucking hell,” Jack said, joining me.
Lea came running out of the house.
“Is he dead? Is Bernie dead?” she cried. When she reached us, she put her hands over her mouth. “Oh, my God, no.”
We stood there for a few minutes looking at each other and then at the ground, anywhere but at Bernie. Everyone had tears in their eyes.
“Jerry.” Jack said, gritting his teeth.
I looked at Jack and felt rage bubbling up inside me.
“That sly fucker.” I said.
Jack ran over to pick up the bearded man’s rifle and tossed it to me, an AR-15. I carried out a make-safe procedure on it and placed the loose round back into the top of the magazine, which now contained a full thirty rounds.
“Let’s go.” I said, as I cocked the rifle.
All three of us jumped over the fence and started running across the field towards Jerry’s farm. He was going to pay.
I was in a furious rage, we had been completely fooled and the price we paid was Bernie’s life. Jerry had a head start on us, so I didn’t expect to see him as we approached his property.
We slowed down as we neared the barn; I said to Lea and Jack, “I want that bastard alive.”
“Fuck that,” Jack answered, “he’s going to have a long, slow, painful death.”
“That’s fine with me,” I replied. “You can do what you like with him after we get him to talk. I would say there’s enough evidence to believe he knows what’s going on, and I want some answers.”
Chapter 8 – The Barn
We approached Jerry’s barn from the same direction as earlier. He would probably be lying in wait for us somewhere, so we couldn’t just going to walk through the front gate.
As we sneaked up to the back of the building, I could hear a muffled voice coming from inside and turned to Jack and Lea, putting a finger to my lips. We all crept closer and listened through gaps in the timber cladding.
“Control, this is NY three. Do you copy?”
A crackly voice replied, “This is control. Please reconfirm the numbers.”
“This is NY three. There are three of them, and they’re all armed.”
“What happened to NY patrol six?”
“Those fuckers shot them. They’ll be coming here soon. I’ll hide in the barn until you send assistance.”
“I’ll go around to the front with Lea,” I whispered to Jack, “you take the side door.”
Lea and I walked around to the large double doors at the front of the barn. One of them was slightly open. I indicated for Lea to stay outside and then quickly slipped in, pointing the Glock in front of me. Jerry was seated with his back to me, wearing a headset and leaning into a radio transmitter.
“Thanks,” he said. “Tell them to come here first, but to be on the lookout.”
“Roger. Control out.”
Jerry took off the headset and turned around. I was standing about five yards away from him pointing the Glock at his face.
“Hello, Jerry. Fancy seeing you here.”
A look of shock flashed across Jerry’s face, and he immediately ran for the side door. As he swung it open, Jack stepped in and smashed the butt of his rifle into Jerry’s forehead. Jerry dropped to the floor, and Jack followed up with two firm blows to the top of his head. Jerry lay motionless.
“Good job,” I said, “but please don’t tell me you’ve killed him?”
Jack checked Jerry’s pulse.
“No, he’s just out cold.”
I scanned the barn and saw a long table against the rear wall.
“Jack, give me a hand pulling that table into the middle of the barn. Lea, you find some rope.”
“What are we going to do with it?” She nervously replied.
I could see pure anger in Jack’s eyes and I felt the same emotion, Bernie did not deserve his fate.
“We’re going to strap the bastard to the table.”
Jack and I hauled the heavy wooden table into position and then lifted Jerry onto it. He was a lot heavier than he looked and it took three attempts to get him in place. Lea brought some thin rope that had been wrapped around a barrel. We cut four long pieces then tied each of Jerry’s limbs to the table legs so he was spread across the table and unable to escape.
With Jerry secure, we could have a closer look around the barn. Stacked high against the left wall were crates of bottled water and piles of various food items, mostly in cans. On the workbench, were five respirators and an equal number of ear defenders. It was also where Jerry had left a rifle. He’d regret not keeping that by his side. In the right hand corner of the barn was a large, black metal object in the shape of a rectangle. It was about half the size of a single bed and had a chrome pole protruding out of the top to make the total height around six feet tall.
Jack picked up the rifle and checked the magazine. He clicked it back into place.
“It’s an AR-15 with a full mag. The same as yours.”
“When do you think the other people are going to arrive?” Lea asked.
“Soon I reckon. Did you hear Control say, ‘What happened to NY patrol six’? That must mean there are a few patrols in the area, but it’s unlikely they will be all based here. Still one of us had better keep watch outside the barn,” I answered.
“No,” Jack disagreed, “we should set up an ambush behind a couple of trees on the road leading to the gate. I bet they’ll drive right in here if they’re as stupid as patrol six.”
“What do you mean stupid?” Lea said.
“They drove right up to Greg’s house. He might not have been expecting what it, but it still wasn’t exactly subtle. At our place, they didn’t shoot Bernie straight away. If I were them, in a hostile situation, I’d have taken Bernie out immediately and picked off Lea from range with the rifle.”
“Charming,” she said, looking slightly surprised.
“They weren’t even watching out for us,” Jack continued, “even though Jerry probably told them of our existence as soon as he saw Bernie.”
“We’ll set up the ambush and wait,” I said.
“What shall we do with him?” Lea said, pointing at Jerry.
Jack picked up a dirty rag from next to the generator, walked over to Jerry who was just starting to regain consciousness and stuffed it into his mouth. His eyes opened wide when he realised he was restrained.
Jack leant down, “Just you wait.”
As we walked away, Jerry spat out the rag and shouted, “Fuck you.”
Jack turned back, ran to the table and smashed his fist into Jerry’s left eye. His head hit the table, and he looked dazed. He then grabbed Jerry’s hair and forced the rag back into his mouth as he struggled and tried to wriggle free. We had done a good job restraining him, he didn’t have a chance. I grabbed an extra piece of rope and wrapped it around his head, tying it around his mouth to stop him from spitting the rag out again. We didn’t need Jerry calling out when his backup arrived.